Southwestern Saskatchewan will be blasted with some extremely balmy temperatures this week.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is projecting multiple days before the end of the week to reach double digits, a benchmark Swift Current hasn't achieved in January since 2002. Before that, it was January 1986.

The warm weather can be attributed to a strong ridge of high pressure drifting from the west coast over the prairies.

"There's still a bit of uncertainty as to exactly how warm we will get," ECCC Meteorologist Justin Shelley said. "One thing around Swift Current that I don't see is a lot of snow cover, so that's usually one inhibitor that will limit the temperature potential, especially in the winter months."

Swift Current is expected to take a run at several daytime heat records this week and might even infringe on the warmest January day in Swift Current history of 15 C back in 1900.

"Certainly has been a couple of years since we've experienced this time of warmth in January," he said.

The city could experience one of the largest in-month temperature shifts of over 50 C, going from -41 C on January 13 to way above the freezing mark. Last January the change was only 29 C difference and in 2021 it was 40 C.

"It's going to be one of the more wild swings we've had in recent years," he said.

While the weather models for this weekend and early next week continue to sort themselves out, Shelley is expecting more mild winter conditions with minimal precipitation on the horizon.